Plain nonsense

The legal profession historically provides a rich seam of material for the Plain English Campaign's annual awards for the most egregious examples of nonsensical and tortured use of our native tongue.

This year provided a bumper crop, with several Golden Bull Awards going to legalese.

An example in a letter from Wrexham County Council dealing with the Land Registration Rules 1925 would require an entire Obiter column to recite - and you would still be none the wiser.

However, one 'unnamed lawyer' was at least briefer in a suggested replacement for the word 'container' in a patent application.

It was, according to this part-time wordsmith: 'a receptacle having at least one exterior surface and a plurality of walls defining a discrete object receiving volume.' Indeed.

Why not roll out 19 words when one would have sufficed? Obiter is certain that a Gazette prize could be produced if the lawyer who penned those 19 words would like to step forward.

For more laughs, see www.plainenglish.co.uk